Induction procedures for election updated

North Lanarkshire Council has updated the induction procedures which will welcome new elected members following next month’s elections.

On May 5, local elections will be held across Scotland, during which all 77 seats on North Lanarkshire Council will be contested to decide who will serve in the next five year term.

It is expected that a significant number of councillors will be new to the role – 2017’s elections saw 45 brand new councillors appointed – so a lot of information and training will have to be provided and the current Labour administration could also be replaced by members of a different political affiliation.

Accordingly, a new induction programme has been created and new decision making arrangements have also been considered.

Furthermore, the pandemic had forced the council to abandon its tradition of meeting in council chambers or committee rooms for online conferencing.

It has only recently introduced of a hybrid system with some councillors and officers present in chambers while others communicate via the internet.

With this greater reliance on technology, a stock of laptops and mobile phones has been purchased for issue to new councillors without needing to wait for anyone who loses their seat in the election to return the devices currently in their possession. The cost of these devices is accounted for in existing budgets.

Councillor Heather Brannan-mcvey welcomed that “lessons had been learned” in the 10 years since her first election, but asked for greater emphasis on equalities in the induction programme as this is a varied and complex field of work.

Head of legal and democratic solutions, Archie Aitken, agreed with Councillor Brannan-mcvey and confirmed the programme would include an additional training session on equalities.

SNP group leader Jordan Linden requested that officers’ photos be included in documentation designed to orient new members to help them “put a face to a name” and also asked if space would be provided for people to go and work early in the next council term as its Motherwell headquarters are not yet fully open, and how other needs such as accessibility would be addressed.

Mr Aitken confirmed new members could expect the same efforts to meet their individual needs as the council’s own staff, as did chief executive Des Murray, who added that guidance material had been extensively updated.

Convener and council leader Jim Logue then asked about provisions for new councillors who would need to arrange time off work to attend the training sessions.

Mr Aitken confirmed all training sessions would be recorded and these recordings would be available for any new members unable to personally attend.

The committee acknowledged the new induction programme, the new decision making methods, endorsed the provision of new IT equipment and agreed to remove this item from the programme of work as it cannot be finished until after the elections and creation of a new council.